Contributing writer
Jennifer Lazariuk
Buying textbooks and Buyback services can cause quite the frenzy for college students, especially because textbooks aren’t on the cheap list.
There are many considerations for students like buying textbooks at cheaper prices, getting money back during Buyback, and even renting books.
The Buyback period usually occurs at the end of each semester: May for the spring, and December for the fall.
Jodee Sakaida, Kapi’olani Community College’s bookstore manager explained that the bookstore has a quota to meet for books that are on the Buyback list.
The books that students can sell back all depend on which books were ordered for the next semester. A set price for a Buyback book cannot be given over the phone because it depends on how many copies the bookstore needs.
“If we need 10 books for that title the most we’ll pay is 50 percent of new book price…”Sakaida said. “Ours is structured for 50 percent of new or used book price.”
However, if the quota for that title is met, it could possibly be bought for the wholesale company, or not at all; the wholesale company determines their own price.
If students are interested in bringing their book in for Buybacks, earlier is better. If students don’t need the book, they should come in right away.
“Sometimes the person in front of you may have the same book and sell it back, but then you go up and they aren’t buying it back anymore … come as early as you can,” Sakaida said.
The bookstore just began buying back loose-leaf and books packaged with access cards.
If a student has a book with an access card that they did not use, they should keep it packaged and bring it in for a possible Buyback. If the access card is unopened it increases the chance for sell back.
Ebooks
There are also options for students to buy textbooks for their Kindle device.
Kindle is also equipped with the Whispersync service, where users can synchronize their reading progress on their different devices.
Prices of ebooks for Kindle have a significant difference in cost, often times cheaper.
Henry Tischler’s “Introduction to Sociology” is available for kindle for a little over $37 instead of $70.
But students don’t need to purchase a Kindle to partake in ebooks. They can download the Kindle application for their Android, BlackBerry, iPhone or Macintosh computers.
Online
For those of you who really go all out to get the most out of your textbooks, whether it be buying or selling, BigWords.com is your place to go.
Bigwords.com is a website where you can buy, sell or even rent textbooks. It’s very easy to navigate through and they even compare prices between different websites such as Amazon or Half.com.
Sounds too good to be true? Not even the slightest. To go about buying, selling or renting a textbook, just enter in the ISBN, title or author of the book in the search bar at the top of the page and it will do the rest for you.
After searching, a list of results will come up and when you find the correct one, just select “buy or rent” or “sell” and it will go right into your bag whether your selling, buying or renting.
Once you’ve found all that you needed, located at the bottom of the page will be a robot named “Uber-BOT” will be there to help you compare your books to other websites so you’ll know if your getting the best deals or best selling price.
Surprisingly, Half.com has more publicity than BigWords.com but has terrible customer service and definitely isn’t reliable. Regardless of what you’ve heard from people, customer reviews say it all.
Customers payments on hold for no reason, never recieved ordered (and paid) products, incorrect book and many more complaints have been filed so don’t be fooled. Half.com does offer the same services as BigWords.com minus the comparison-bot.
Not only could you get books from BigWords.com but you could also get DVDs, games and music and you could compare them to other websites as well. You won’t be able to sell your DVDs, games or music, but at least you can find a great price for what you want.